Page 46 of Hers to Marry
The other couples shared a laugh. Drew quickly released Kat and stepped away. Kat caught her hands behind her back and kept her gaze averted from Drew.
“You two don’t have to act like you don’t know each other,” the instructor harped while laughing. “Just recognize when the music stops. I’d like to teach you and the rest of the class another step. Would you care to join us?”
Drew and Kat nodded, and Drew stepped toward Kat. “Sorry,” he whispered.
“No worries. I wasn’t paying attention either.”
After the instructor showed them how to do the foxtrot, Drew fumbled around with Kat for a little bit until he was able to smooth out his strides.
“What do you mean ‘owe her’?” he asked again.
“Hmm?”
“You said I owe my fiancée.”
“I just meant that…you may feel obligated, that’s all.”
“Obligated to do what?”
Kat met his gaze and slowly answered, “Stay with her?”
He didn’t respond right away, the truth of her words piercing to a tender spot in his heart he hadn’t felt in a long time. Certainly not one he’d allowed anyone to touch. Maybe he did need to see a therapist again. Seeing one had been helpful after Zache’s death when guilt had overwhelmed him.
Is that why he agreed to continue his relationship with Parker? Knowing he would have to move to London? When she inevitably earned the position of CEO, would that mean another move back to Boston and staying for good? What if she were recruited by another company? They would move elsewhere, and he’d never see the home he had wanted to build in a small town.
Maybe he was being unrealistic. This was the twenty-first century. Women had high-demanding careers, and children were raised by nannies all the time. He would be home; he could raise the kids and work on his business at the same time. Not all family values had to line up for a marriage to work, right? Nor did they have to be a priority for them to raise kids.
Did he believe any of that?
“You think that’s why I’m staying? I owe her this because of what she’s been able to do with my company?”
“Is that what she said?”
“No,” he hissed. “Because she’s not like that. She cares about my career just like I care about hers.”
Kat sucked in her lips and nodded. “Sorry I mentioned it then.”
“Besides you don’t know me—not anymore. You don’t know what I’ve been through.”
Her hand tightened around his own. “Tell me. What have you been through?” Her eyes entreated him. “Make me understand why you look so…torn and less than the happiest man on earth.”
His eyes searched her face. Is that what she saw when she looked at him? Did Parker see the same? If Parker did, she had never said.
Drew closed his eyes. “Kat,” he said in a frustrated breath and then stepped on her toes. “Oh, I’m sorry.” He tried to let go of her, but she held fast to his hand and her arm gripped his bicep.
“Don’t let me go. I want to be here. Keep going. I’m right there with you.” She closed the gap and urged him on with a squeeze of her hands.
Drew took a deep breath, internally counted the beats to the music, and started again.
After a few rotations, he felt calmer. “Parker was there when no one else was. She was there when I…”
“When you what?”
“A friend of mine—in Afghanistan—took my place on a mission and died because of it.”
Kat inhaled sharply. Her eyes closed, and she shook her head. “Oh, Drew…”
“The first year afterwards was hard for me. I don’t think I would be here today if it wasn’t for her. I was in a really dark hole, Kat. I couldn’t see my way out of it. Zache and I had grown up together in Guam and Germany. He didn’t get to live his life because…”
